Count Your Blessings

I'm going to copy my blog post from our adoption blog today, as the events with our adoption in the past 2 weeks are just plain amazing!

God's Amazing Grace.

Where to start.  The last time I blogged, I had opened a savings account so I'd have a place to hold any money donated as we work to bring in the funds needed for our I800a ($1100) and our dossier (roughly $6000, including postage and document preparation).  Since then it seems that on every turn, the Lord is granting us grace.

Did you know that the term "Grace" is defined as unmerited favor?  I was pondering on that today as I was driving home from gleaners, overwhelmed by God's amazing outpouring of blessings over the past week.  Who am I, Who are we, to be given such amazing grace?  We aren't all the special.  We aren't even that great of parents.  I see so many other parents who are doing what seems to be so much more for their children.  I am so flawed.  I am so inadequate.  I am so not the energizer bunny.  I am so inherently selfish.  I am so easily tempted to take the easy way, to give in to selfish interests, to escaping from the things that matter to do things that are a complete waste of time.  But that is the amazing thing about God.  He doesn't give us what we deserve.  He doesn't give us what we have earned.  He doesn't give us what will get us by.  He gives to us with amazing generosity according to His will for us, regardless of our merit.

I know, some of you will say, "but look at how great your older kids have turned out!"  And yes, our older children are all amazing young adults.  But I can't take credit for that!  I made so many mistakes as a young mother, and as a not-so-young mother.  God has led and directed our lives and stepped in to shown us so many things that have changed who we are as parents over the years, but He has also worked in their lives to work His good will.  I can not take credit for the good that I see in our children.  God gets all the credit.  I know that without His grace, I would have failed miserably as a parent.

But God has taught me so much.  He has taught us so much.  I have come so far.  I praise God for the dynamics of our family today.  We are not perfect, we are all sinners living together under one roof.  We sin against each other, we get impatient with each other.  But we all love each other and are quick to forgive and forget.  And He has drawn us to walk down a road that surprises even us.

So many times since we started down this road I have questioned the wisdom of this.  How can I care for one more, how can I learn to care for a child damaged from living in an institution?  How can I continued to meet the needs of the children I already have and another child with medical and special needs?  How in the world can we afford to adopt when we have never even had a saving account when we seem to have more month than money most of the time?

But God keeps stepping in and showing me that this is NOT about me.  This is not even about US.  This is about HIM.  Look at every man and woman who is in the hall of fame in the Bible and you will see flawed people il-equipped for the job that God gave them.  You will see parents who make mistakes, people who sinned greatly, even people who didn't learn from their mistakes.  But you will see a God who orchestrates HIS will regardless of the worth of the people He chose to use.

I just wanted to share with you that I have doubts, I feel ill-equipped to take this new adventure on, but God continues to show us that this is HIS will.  And so many times, when people follow God's leading, everyone, even those called, feel that it is crazy, reckless and ill-advised.  But God does know what He is doing.  Every time.

So, now to specifics.  I'm going to list my recent doubts, and then how God has answered...

We have not met the standards of BCS to pass our home study, how will we adopt Priscilla now?  God knew what was best.  Being rejected by BCS, although it looked like a dead end, was in reality a ticket for an upgrade!  Our new home study agency,  Adoption Home Study Service, has been a breath of fresh air.  Mike has answered our questions quickly and patiently.  His visit with us last Thursday was comfortable and friendly.  Esther was even sharing a book with the social worker that Mike brought with him once she warmed up to them.  He found nothing that would prevent us from being approved, but did give us a little home work (we need to install 2 more fire extinguishers and create a couple of documents).  He plans to have our home study completed in under 3 weeks from now!  It was definitely an upgrade to switch to Mike's home study agency!

How can we afford this?  God has already caused Daryl's boss to grant him an unexpected bonus, then last week a raise, and now he has the opportunity to work overtime.  He has blessed my business when we needed it to make ends meet.  People have stepped in to donate towards the spaghetti feed to cover the supplies we needed.  We were able to sell some exercise equipment to cover the cost of some documents.  Our tax return covered our commitment fees, as well as our home study fees and also pay off our dental bill from this past winter.  And to top it all off, we now have a family stepping in to match all funds raised in the next 5 weeks!  It is not if WE can afford it, it is really a question of How is He going to provide.

How can I handle another child with special/medical needs?  Looking back, I was not equipped in the slightest when Esther was given to us.  But God knew that, and He gave her to us anyway.  We are being equipped for this every day, every hour.  And He will give us the grace we need when we need it.  He has always come through in the past, and I must trust.  But I must also prepare.  I'm reading about attachment disorders, sensory disorders and we will be working with a team at the University of Washington to prepare for her medical needs. Looking into the future is futile as a  human.  We can't change it or even know what is coming.  We can prepare for probably situations.  But I know from experience that God does put us in situations where we can only go on by His grace.  And I know from experience, that it is not that bad a place to be in...it is an amazing place to be in.

Another year without a swing set for our younger children (we had planned to use our tax return to purchase a new play set for the kids as swinging is great for kids, especially for Esther right now).  Last week a family we know locally asked if we wanted their "old" swing set.  Now we have a 4 year old swing set just the right size for Esther (as well as Dayton, Elizabeth and Carese soon).  And just in time for the wonderful sunny weather we are having around here! (photos courtesy of our daughter, Rachel).

What if the spaghetti feed is a bust....we can't afford to purchase the supplies even!  Well, I still have no idea if we'll have a decent attendance  but in the last couple of weeks we've had lots of encouragement in the way of donations - gift cards for businesses, commitments to cover all the noodles, half the sauce, and all of the corn.  Plus two families have donated $100 ea for us to use to purchase the remaining ingredients.  I'm still not sure if it will cover everything, but I'm sure we are close!

You know, adopting Priscilla is such an amazing picture of God's grace.  She doesn't know about us,  she doesn't understand that God is working to ransom her.  She has no idea.  She has done absolutely nothing to earn our love.  She has nothing to offer us.  She is seen by the world as flawed.  She is seen by her culture as unworthy of keeping, even seen as a curse by some.  But God sees her a His child.  His creation.  Worth of everything it takes to ransom her.  To save her life.  To give her love.  To give her a place to call home.  He's done this for me.  I did not deserve His love, I did not deserve anything, but He loved me enough to die for me and adopt me as His child.  To pay the ultimate price. I hope you have experienced His amazing grace in your life.  I pray that someday Priscilla will experience and know God's amazing grace and that she too will become His child.

So, here we are.  Experiencing God's amazing grace.  Unmerited.  Undeserved. Unlimited.

We will work hard to be faithful to His call, His provision, His mercy.

Will you work with us?  Will you help us to make the most of this gift of a matching grant?  Please share our story. No, wait.  It isn't our story, it's His Story!  Please share what God is doing to ransom our Priscilla.  Share how He is moving mountains to give this little one a new life, a new home, and a new family.

And just to be clear.  The matching grant offered to us is not limited to funds sent to Reece's Rainbow or to monetary gifts.  They have offered to match dollar for dollar all funds raised whether it is via Reece's Rainbow, our FundraiZr account, directly to our paypal account, donated to us in person or even if it is an item donated for auctions or raffles.  Amazing, just Amazing!

37 days to see miracles happen!

A New Year is Upon Us!

OK, so I've been busy...for some strange reason.

December was a busy month, but my biggest reason for not blogging was that I was lacking energy and motivation.  I just didn't want to spend the time to blog as I was having trouble finding the time to do more important things like plan for Christmas, do Christmas activities and such.  I was struggling with some physical challenges, most of which I have overcome now.

I've also been thinking about blogging and wondering if it is really worth the time.  Does it really matter to anyone if I blog about our life - I don't think we're all that interesting, really!  I haven't had a comment on my blog here in months.  I might just lay off doing this.  If  you like reading my blog, please leave a comment to encourage me to continue.  I do enjoy blogging, but I don't want to do it just to toot my own horn, so to speak.  I need to know if you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!

Speaking of writing - I'm writing a chapter for a book about women's fertility in the 40s!  I get to write about all my childbearing experiences and then answer questions that were submitted by prospective readers!  I'm not sure what the book's title will be, but it will be published electronically.  It will be published in June - let me know if you are interested in knowing how to get the book!

So here are some high lights of the last month:

First off, here's what happens when the kids steal my camera - I get great photos that I wouldn't have otherwise, but I have to dig through hundreds of goofy/unusable photos to fine the gems!

 Wow - This photo was amazing, but scary at the same time, know what I mean?

Carese has been crawling for about two months now

Esther loves to help me fill my daily vitamin organizer - this time Elizabeth was helping her too!

Elizabeth and I had a very special birthday - 12-12-12!  We had a lot of friends over and had a 12 themed party - dozens of sandwhiches and cookies, and we sang The Twelve Days of Christmas at 12:12:12!  

We even found matching skirts for her and her best friend to wear!

This year I directed the church choir for the fall and Christmas seasons, and I so enjoyed it.  Jessica did a special braid for the day that the choir sang for the service!  She's getting amazing at doing great braids!

Great long, fingerless glove for the big girls from their grandparents!

The boys got cool black ties from the grandparents!

Carese's unique balancing act!

She was so ready to walk!

Esther decorated one cookie and then went to eating the chocolate chips!

Christmas Eve Caos!

Little girls and dolls at Christmas, they just go together!

Our New Christmas tradition - Shooting Practice.  Daryl is our gun safety guy, he's always close by to make sure we are all being as safe as possible!

Post Christmas Breakfast - notice that Carese is fast asleep!  I think Esther had too much to eat!  LOL!

 

Esther got lots of help unwrapping!

 

Esther LOVED the nerf gun - only problem was she kept shooting her daddy!

So sweet!

Pure awesomeness!!!

Our favorite family pasttime - a game of Nerts!

My artsy girl getting a very unique gift - gummy snake, chocolate covered insects and a sucker with a scorpian in it!  She took it well!  She also got a very nice gift too (I've forgotten what it was though)

This gift was a big hit with everyone!

Daryl teaching the girls how to aim and how to be safe!

Goody Bags on Christmas Morning!

We even got a White Christmas!

I even got to do some target practice!

More snow after Christmas and that's Esther out running around!

Did I mention that Esther liked the snow?

And the yummiest Christmas Tradition - Nanaimo Bars!

Hope you enjoyed the update!  Please keep Esther in your prayers as she is having her tonsils and adenoids removed on Monday - she'll be down at Children's in Seattle for at least one night.

For Unto Us a Child is Born....

Please, have a safe and blessed holiday season, and remember the real reason for Christmas is that the God of the universe loved the human race so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to earth as a little baby, fully man and fully God, to live among us and to take our sins on Him and die in our place to pay the penalty for sin. Then He conquered death and rose from the grave so that we could have eternal life. 

All you need to do is confess that you are a sinner and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. He will forgive all your sins, and you will receive the gift of eternal life. But it's more than just a prayer prayed once - you need to make Him Lord of your life. To learn more, please read my blog post about how to be saved and how to make Christ Lord of your life.
http://mydaughterslisten.blogspot.com/2011/07/first-things-first.html

This Breaks My Heart - But There Is Hope!

Yesterday I was checking on Alexandra's page on Reece's Rainbow and was soooo excited to see that she had been given an anonymous grant donation of $5,000!  Unbelievable!  I was so thankful to my Lord that He moved someone to donate to her adoption.

But today my heart is broken for her.  I also noticed yesterday that they mentioned that they had additional photos available of her so I requested the photos.  This is what I got today and it breaks my heart:

Do you see those precious little legs?  It says in her information "united multiple fractures of extremities, ribs" due to her "Brittle Bone Disease" and now you can see what that means!  Poor Alexandra needs her forever family to commit to adopting her and bring her home so she can have proper medical attention and nutrition to strengthen her bones!

Do you see her size?  I have no idea, but she looks to me like she weighs less than 20 pounds.  That's find for a baby, but Alexandra, IS FIVE YEARS OLD!

Do you see that smile?  In spite of everything she still gave a little smile for the camera.  She is in there, living this nightmare of inhumane care, but she has not mental retardation.  Just a physical disease that makes her bones weak.  

Please consider adopting Alexandra.

Please share this blog post. 

Please share her Reece's Rainbow Page. 

Please consider donating towards her adoption, even small donations will get her closer to being adopted.  

And Please Pray For Alexandra! - you can print this flyer (click on it to see it full size) and post it on your refrigerator:

"How can you afford to have so many children?"

This was going to be a Letter to my Daughters, but it just wasn't sounding very letter-ish, so I'm posting it here!

When people hear of how many children we have in our family, we get a lot of common responses!  We often hear "you must be very patient" (I tell them I'm still learning that one), or "are they all yours" (of course they are!), or "God Bless You!" (and I say that He has, richly).  One comment or question we often get is what my husband does for a job, or how can we afford to raise so many children.  I usually share with them that we try hard to live inexpensively in order to make it possible!  Sometimes it's nearly impossible, but for the most part with care we do just fine.

We are not independently wealthy, my husband has a decent, hard working job.  But he is not our ultimate provider, God is.  God has not chosen to give us the trial of wealth (we keep asking for this trial so we can prove that we can handle it, but He has not seen fit to grant us this request!).  We have a moderate income, rich when compared to most of the world's population.  Due to the cost of our current housing, we have to be very frugal to make ends meet and this tends to lead us to live simply.

We have learned the hard way through the years that incurring debt is a very bad thing.  Even recently we have again learned this lesson the hard way.  About 1 1/2 years ago we purchased Financial Freedom Seminar, which we had discovered while looking around at the Duggar Family Website.  This really transformed the way we look at our finances.  We highly recommend this to everyone!  For us this resulted in a renewed conviction to get out of debt in every way that we can.  This has been a huge struggle for us, but we've learned so much in the process.  We have successfully paid off all our business debt, but it took over a year to do this.

Before I go any further, I need to make a confession.  This is the area of biggest struggle for me.  I know what it right, but so often I am tempted to spend money the wrong way and we end up paying for it in the long run.  God is working on me in this area, but for some reason I keep "thumping."  I'm so thankful that I serve a living God who loves me and forgives me even when I fail Him so often.

I'm going to share with you some of the ways we have "tightened our belt" so to speak - ways we have found to reduce our cost of living.  I'll start with some of the biggies and work my way down.

First things first.  Giving back to God out of a thankful heart comes first and foremost.  We have learned the hard way that when we skip this because we don't think we have enough money to last, we end up in dire straights in no time.  For some reason we keep having to learn this one over and over again.  Giving God 10% of your income right off the top is a great place to start. We tithe to our local church as well as some other worthy ministries, as God has led.

For our home loan, we have gone to a weekly payment plan, as this makes an extra payment every year, and that payment goes 100% towards the principal and this one thing will reduce the length of our mortgage by years, saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.  We are also looking at possibly selling our home in order to reduce our debt there, but with the housing market so depressed right now we are not sure if this would be short sighted.

For our transportation, our cars are all used (well used in most cases), and we do not owe anything on them.  Daryl does some of the repairs, but we do use our local, reliable auto mechanic for the big jobs.  We pay far less in car maintenance and repair than we would ever pay in car payments with interest.  Also, by owning our cars outright, we are not required to have comprehensive car insurance on our cars and this lowers our insurance expense more than you can imagine.  Due to the high price of gas, we think twice before leaving the house, and try to use the most efficient car for our errands whenever possible.  Right now that means not going to town for shopping, as the gas alone would cost around $20 round trip and we would not be saving that much by buying at the big stores over shopping at our local grocery stores.  I would recommend never purchasing a new car, or even a newer used car.  Shop around, get a mechanic to look over a car you are interested in, and learn to do car maintenance yourself - oil changes, for example, can be done by the owner and save a lot through the years.  We also shop around for the best deal in auto insurance as we are required to have that.  Our older children don't get a driver's license until they can afford to pay for their auto insurance to reduce our outlay there.

In the last year we have given up many things that we used to take for granted - we quit Netflix, we stopped renting movies (with the exception of the occasional $1/night ones) and started using the library, we stopped eating out as often as were accustomed to, I rarely get anything from an espresso stand (this was a huge sacrifice, let me tell you!), we reduced our budget for birthdays/Christmas, we reduced the number of cell phones down to just 2 (from 5),  we severely curtailed going on expensive dates (Daryl and I still date!), and found ways to date with little or no expense (like renting a movie and popping popcorn, and locking the kids out of the living room), and we gave up bowling.  Recently we decided to reduce our personal time on the computer, cutting our use of YouTube type videos and Facebook, especially the games.  We have found that our bandwidth usage has been cut in half, and we are going to be able to drop to a lower usage plan, saving us approximately $30/mo.  There were probably other things, but those are the things I can remember!  We looked over all the things we were spending our money on and got rid of or reduced in as many ways as we could.

Monthly bills can be challenging.  It's so easy to sign up for a monthly expense (magazines, cable, movies, products, album of the month, etc), yet we don't know the future, and it's easy to ignore the accumulative cost - a $20/month commitment costs $240/year!  We looked at every bill that we pay monthly and talked about how we can work to lower them.  We started being careful about leaving lights and computers on, and we were able to reduce our electric bill by over $50/mo!  We also turned down our thermostats, and although our bill hasn't gone down, it hasn't gone up at all even thought he cost of propane has gone up considerably since we started conserving.  We try to keep our water usage low conserving where we can.  We also try to always do full loads when washing/drying clothes.  We have used a clothes line in the past, but at present we do not have one set up - when it can be done, hanging clothes on the line can also lower your energy usage!

As far as school goes, we try to keep our expenses to a minimum. Switched On Schoolhouse works very well for this as multiple students can use the same curriculum with no additional expense, and they can be saved for younger ones coming up.  We also shop at our local homeschool second hand store (Homeschool Recyclers) and get most of our materials second hand, saving a lot!  We also re-sell our used homeschool supplies there and then can use the credit once they sell to purchase what we need - the last time I was there she actually owed me money!

Soaps we made last year!

We also save a lot of money making our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotions, deodorant, and cleaning solutions!  I highly recommend researching the internet for simple recipes for these.  Even soap making is easy if you do melt and pour, and it's fun too!  This also saves on garbage as you re-use your packaging over and over again!

Clothing with this many people in the family can be a challenge.  We use a consignment store in town (Wee Ones) to re-sell any clothes/books/toys that we are finished with that are still in good shape.  I also re-sell returned/second quality items from my home business there.  I almost always have some credit there to use to purchase clothes/shoes/books!  If we can't find what we need at Wee Ones, we go to Goodwill and/or Value Village to get what we need.  Once in a while we just can't get what is needed and will purchase new at Walmart or Target, but that is rare.  Although I haven't used it yet, I have heard of a place in our county where you can go to get free clothes, I'm sure that is a great saving for many families!  Of course we also make great use of handing clothes down from one child to the next.  I keep bins of sized clothing in our attic for when clothes are not in used, and it's so nice to be able to go up there and get the next size of clothes out!  Having 3 little boys in a row (and now 3 little girls), the older they get, the fewer clothes actually survive well enough for storage or re-selling.

Carese, just 5 pounds, wearing our old style Snap-EZ Preemie Pocket Diaper!

And, of course, I have to talk about using cloth!  Even though I now own a cloth diaper company, Snap-EZ, I can honestly say that I would use cloth diapers even if I didn't.  I started using cloth right from the beginning - back in 1986 I used prefolds, pins and plastic pants with our first baby, using a diaper service.  I only did that for about 6 months, as I was working out of the home and disposables were more convenient.  I used cloth diapers again once I was a stay at home mom, and each of my subsequent children have been in cloth diapers at least some of the time.  I've used so many different versions, but I really love using pocket diapers, especially the Multi-Size pocket diapers, as I can bring some Snap Extenders along and use Carese's diapers on Esther when needed!  We rarely purchase disposables, as using cloth saves us so much.  When we were using cloth (like when Esther was in the hospital for weeks at a time), our water bill didn't even flinch, so I know we are saving money doing cloth.  We also use cloth wipes.  I estimate that with two in diapers we are saving around $40 - 50 per month, plus we don't have stinky garbage!  We also save money by using cloth for our monthly cycles most of the time.  It's easy to do, saves money, and then we don't have to purchase these items in the store (I'm always a little embarrassed to purchase these private items).  Each of the women in our home has their own personal stash and they care for them.

Baking Bread - a Whisper Mill and a Bosch are great,
but not necessary - I made our bread by hand for a long time!

And lastly, food. This is a biggy!  One of the biggest things we do to keep our food budget low is to make all our own bread!  We purchase the wheat berries in 50 pound bags, grind it into wheat flour and make our own, delicious bread.  We also pick berries at Barbie's Berries in season and freeze them to make jam all year round (when we run out too soon, we purchase the frozen gallons of berries from the Barbie's Berries).  This tastes so much better than store bought, and is cost effective too!  We try to have hot breakfasts during the week - oatmeal, cream of wheat, pancakes and such - all made from scratch.  We don't buy pop or koolaide, and only the little ones get juice (Esther has a milk allergy).  Our kids are encouraged to drink water, and our milk is reserved for cooking, on hot cereal and cold cereal when we have it.  We shop at Costco for things that we can really save on there - butter, almonds, chocolate chips and toilet paper to name a few - but we have to consider the cost of gas to get there which might not off-set the savings.  Generally speaking, we have a food budget at around $150/week to make cooking/eating comfortable.  I'd love to have $250 a week as that would allow for a few conveniences, but it's been a long time since we had that much available every week!  More recently we have been making ends meet for even less - last week we only spent $90, and this week $70 so far (not counting the 60 pounds of frozen strawberries I picked up at a steal of a deal since the new season is starting!).  To keep our costs this low, it means using up the items on our shelves and in the freezer that we don't normally use, but it's good to clean out the freezer and use up older canned goods once in a while!  One sacrifice we make when we have to is forgoing fresh foods - fruits especially can get very expensive.  I don't recommend this, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do!  I used to do a lot of canning, and I hope to do that again this year.  Not sure if that saves a lot of money, but it's fresher, home canned and there when you need it through out the year!  We eat simply, and use left overs for lunches a lot.  We try to make snacks instead of purchasing snacks - popcorn and cookies instead of chips and twinkies for example.  One way we also reduce our grocery bill is to use the weekly ads and make our menu to use what is a good price that week.  We tried "couponing" but found that we ended up purchasing things that we would not normally purchase (luxury items), plus we spent more on gas to get the "deals" negating the savings.  Also, going to lots of stores also used up my valuable time too.  It works great for others, but we not profitable for us.  One of the biggest things we do to save on groceries, is we create a menu for the week, including breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as snacks, before we leave the house.  We base this menu on what we have available, and what is on special at the stores.  Then we make a comprehensive shopping list, noting the approximate cost of each item.  Then we check the total to see if it is close to our budget, and if it's too high, we try to trim off a few items that are not essential.  I try to have the list be less than our budget just in case.  We try to never shop while hungry, take cash and stay in the budget.  If we remember something we missed on the list, we can get it, but hopefully something cost less than expected to cover the overage.

Berry processing 2011

In general, I do our bookkeeping once a week, tithing and paying the bills and see what's left over.  I use that as our budget for food and clothes, after setting aside money for gas in the cars.  Then I make up our menu and grocery list.  We never seem to have anything left over, but that's OK as God is giving us exactly what He has deemed the right amount of income for us at this time.  I struggle with this when times are tight, but as Paul says in Philipians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."  We have done a lot of praying this year about our finances.  We've even gone so far as to make specific prayers for our needs, and watching to see if we got orders in our home business that would cover those expenses!  This is great for building our children's faith in God's provision (and ours too!).  We are doing this right now as we have had some unexpected expenses this year (new baby, septic system crashed, attic needed venting to name a few), and God has and is providing for us.

I think that's everything...but there's probably more.  I don't think we are experts in frugality, but we are working hard to live as economically as we can.  I have heard that the Duggars shop second hand and save the difference...wish we could save the difference, but that is a great way to do it!  They also live completely debt free, and I highly respect them for accomplishing that!

I hope someone has benefitted from my sharing our adventures in home economics! If I haven't touched on something, ask me and I'll do my best to answer your question.  If you have found a way to cut your expenses, please share by commenting below!  We're always looking for more ways to save!

New - Add My Button to Your Blog/Website!

With a little help from another blogging mom,  Tiffany,   I now have a button that you can use to link to my blog from your website or blog! (I couldn't get the html right for the code box - thanks Tiffany!)





I'd love it if you could share my blog with your audience!

The code and example are in the top of the right hand column.  Just copy and past the code into a html widget on your blog and it should appear!

Thanks!

Goofy Grin to put a Smile on Your Face!

I just couldn't wait until my next full blog post - Jessica got this photo of Carese during a smile fest!

Isn't that the cutest, goofiest grin ever???

Plus a special announcement!

My Daughter, Rachel, has launched her own home business selling hand crafted items:

Rachel's Color Box

2 Months Old and a Happy Momma!

My super happy smile!

Carese turned 2 months old last week.  On her second month's birthday she finally reached the birth weight and height  of our largest baby, Jonathan, exactly.  She weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long.  She was 5% for height and weight no the charts, and her growth curve is good.  The pediatrician was very pleased with her growth!  

I'm number one!
Carese is wearing her "going home" outfit at 2 months
 and swimming in it!

Carese is now having smile fests!  We love these.  She's having them about twice a day, and she'll give us smile after smile for several minutes.  They are so cute!  It even looks like she might be the first to have a real, middle of the cheek, dimple!  


She has officially outgrown all but two preemie clothes.  She is wearing newborn size if it doesn't have feet, and 0 - 3 months for sleepers, but she pretty much swims in them.  She is just fitting in our Snap-EZ Multi-Size Baby Pocket Diapers now, yet still fits in the old smalls with plenty of room for growing still.  Because she has taken 2 months to grow into the smallest current Snap-EZ Pocket Diaper, I am going to start producing a Snap-EZ Multi-Size Infant Pocket Diapers that will fit babies from 4 pounds up to around 11 pounds!  I am very excited about this.

brighter eyes!

So, I still haven't gotten to why I'm a happy momma yet (although all of the above does make me happy of  course) - I'm happy because I had my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today and he says I don't need knee surgery...not yet anyway! 

Don't mess with my binky!

I am allowed to begin to bear weight as I can without pain, slowly working my way back to full weight bearing!  I am to continue to do the physical therapy (he suggested doing the exercises 1 - 2 times a day) and icing my knee 2 - 3 times a day.  If I'm still struggling with pain, I have an appointment in 6 weeks to have an injection of a cortizone type of medication to reduce inflamation.  If I'm feeling no or little pain, I can begin to do regular exercise (like volleyball!) starting in July!  Yeah!

He also said I can begin with a recumbent bike anytime as long I do not experience pain while biking!  PTL!!!!!

I'm so happy I could jump, but I'd probably hurt my knee so I won't!  LOL!


I'll leave you with some photo highlights from Mother's Day, which also made me a happy mother!

Esther playing with her rag dolls and giraffe!

Jason get's to hold Carese for the first time, and she was so good for him!

Jeremy and Esther waiting for the wonderful dinner to begin!

Baby toes sneaking through the knit of her cocoon